Lions Work Party

The La Habra Host Lions Club holds work parties 8 a.m. to noon every fourth Saturday of the month to help people and organizations around the city. Anyone is welcome to participate.

To find the location and nature of the next work party, visit the Lions' website at e-clubhouse.org/sites/lahabrahost/, or check out its Facebook page. You can also call the club at 562-691-3482.

Dan Varney came to the door grabbing the collar of a black Labrador and wearing sunglasses. In the front yard, teenagers and adults raked leaves in the damp, fog-covered morning.

Over the last couple of years, Varney’s nearly one-acre property in northern La Habra had become overrun with weeds, kindling and brush – a fire hazard city officials warned he had to clear or face citations.

But Varney, 50, couldn’t oblige, at least not alone.

That’s because he is blind.

So, on Saturday, about 30 members of the La Habra Host Lions Club, along with members of the Chamber of Commerce and a Little League team, came together to clear away the organic detritus that had turned his front and back yards into wilderness.

“This is fantastic,” said Varney, who went blind two and a half years ago following a 19-hour surgery to remove a softball-sized benign tumor from his head.

Varney, a former consultant for a fire-life safety systems company, is now on disability. He has a wife, Blanca, 35, and two sons, 11-year-old Christopher and 7-year-old Liam.

“I didn’t even know they did things like this,” Varney said.

In fact, this is the fourth time the Lions Club has organized what it terms “work parties,” a program that began in July and now occurs every fourth Saturday morning of the month. The goal, Lions officials say, is to help those in the community who may not have the means to do so themselves.

When Randy McMillan, a former Lions president and current chair of the work-party program, received a call from a city official about Varney’s situation, he knew the club had to help. He visited with Varney at his home, just off Arbolita Drive, last week.

“The Lions are ‘knights of the blind,’ so it’s nice that we can come out here and clean up his yard,” McMillan said. “It’s challenging for him and hopefully, by doing this, we can take a little of that challenge away from him.”

With rakes, brooms, lawn mowers, Weed Whackers, branch trimmers and black garbage bags in hand, the Lions Club and its youth group, the Leos, swept pine needles off the roof of Varney’s garage, raked overgrowth from the massive hill in his backyard and snapped off tenuously hanging limbs from trees.

Among the helpers was 50-year-old Dana Inman, a team mom for the Little League troop that forewent Saturday practice to work in Varney’s yard. She said Christopher Varney had been on her son’s baseball team about three years ago. Her family was heartbroken when they found out about Varney’s tumor and ensuing blindness.

“We were planning on coming to this work party, anyway,” she said. “But when I found out it was for him, that was just the icing on the cake.”

Lions Club volunteers garden Dan Varney's backyard Saturday morning at his house in La Habra. CHRIS HAIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Dan Varney, 50, went blind two and a half years ago after a 19-hour surgery to remove a softball-sized benign tumor from his brain. CHRIS HAIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
La Habra High School student Alex Carmona, 17, sweeps pine needles off the roof of Dan Varney's garage during Saturday morning's work party. CHRIS HAIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Lion member Lorna Badame, 64, removes tree branches from Dan Varney's back yard Saturday morning. CHRIS HAIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Elizabeth Garcia, left, works to put gathered leaves and branches into black garbage bags along with a group of Lions Club members. CHRIS HAIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A group of volunteers clear Dan Varney's backyard of branches and other detritus Saturday morning. Varney is unable to do so himself because he is blind. CHRIS HAIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Armando Gomez, 50, the associate advisor to the Leos, cuts branches so they will fit into trash bags Saturday morning at Dan Varney's house in northern La Habra. CHRIS HAIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A group of Leos tidy up Dan Varney's front yard during the Lion's Clubs monthly Work Party Saturday morning in La Habra. CHRIS HAIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Leos member Elizabeth Garcia, left, 16, and Maria Rosales, 17, clean up the front yard of Dan Varney's house Saturday morning. CHRIS HAIRE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.